TDP, farmers block highways in Andhra Pradesh

Vijayawada: TDP and farmer groups from coastal Andhra Pradesh Saturday launched an agitation to demand release of water from Nagarjunasagar to Krishna.

Legislators and workers from the main Opposition party and farmers from coastal districts of Prakasam, Guntur, Krishna and West Godavari blockade highways and staged sit-ins at various places to press for their demands.

Farmers said release of water from Nagarjunasagar to Krishna delta is necessary to meet their drinking and irrigation requirements. Also uninterrupted power supply is required to save their standing crops.

In Krishna district, TDP workers and farmers disrupted road traffic at Gollapudi and Nandigama on Vijayawada- Hyderabad National Highway, Gannavaram and Hanuman Junction on Vijayawada-Visakhapatnam National Highway.

Following this, hundreds of vehicles, including passenger buses, were stranded on the highways since morning.

Devineni Umamaheswara Rao, a TD legislator, was removed from a sit-in site at Gollapudi by Vijayawada police and shifted to a police station along with his followers.

At Pedakakani in Guntur district, former Minister Kodela Siva Prasada Rao and legislator Dhulipalla Narendra Kumar led the stir along with farmer outfits and Left parties.

At many places, police tried to remove agitators and clear road traffic.